David Usher, lead singer of the Montreal-based band MOIST, has just released his first solo effort entitled Little Songs. The album was written during down time on tour with MOIST and was recorded almost entirely at home in his kitchen. Usher was in town yesterday on a tour to promote the new CD that was released last month.

"If you choose to put a solo record out, you'd better be willing to work."

So says a weary David Usher during a stop in the city yesterday to promote his first solo album, Little Songs.

Certainly the MOIST vocalist seems willing enough to put his shoulder to the grindstone these days. Not content with merely enduring his Montreal-based rock outfit's masochistic touring schedule, Usher Last year wrote and recorded an album's worth of songs on the side.

Now, with Moist "right in the middle" of writing the follow-up to its hit sophomore disc, Creature, he's crisscrossing Canada to plug his own, just released album.

"I just really wanted to do it," says Usher, 31, of Little Songs, which was recorded almost entirely in his kitchen with Creature producer Paul Northfield. "I had a lot of songs that were very personalized, and I wanted to do them in a different vein, with a variety of instruments."

The result is a moody, occasionally bleak, affair replete with acoustic guitar, spacey drum loops and splashes of trumpet and cello. Worlds away from MOIST's stadium-friendly alt-rock anthems, Little Songs has been greeted with almost universal good reviews - a relief to Usher, who admits he was a little nervous releasing a disc without the cushion of a band.

"The wonderful thing about it is you get to make the calls," he says. "The more frightening thing about it is if it doesn't work out, you're going to pay personally."

Now that the album's out there, though, Usher is entertaining the idea of taking his solo act on the road.

"I'm thinking about it - that's as far as I want to go with it," he says. "I'm really busy on the new MOIST record right now, and releasing this record has been kind of a traumatic experience...

"It really depends on time. If I couldn't get the time to prepare and do it right, I wouldn't want to put something out."